New plea made to free Myanmar political prisoners

YANGON, Myanmar 
A government-appointed human rights body on Sunday urged Myanmar's president to release political prisoners or transfer them to prisons close to their families, signaling that such action may be imminent.

The appeal comes amid intense speculation about a new amnesty covering some of the country's estimated 2,000 political prisoners. A comprehensive release of political detainees would boost the already active diplomatic efforts to improve relations with the United States, which shunned the previous military regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to allow free and democratic politics.

Myanmar's three state-owned newspapers published an open letter Sunday from National Human Rights Commission chairman Win Mra calling on President Thein Sein to grant amnesty "as a reflection of magnanimity," or to transfer political prisoners in remote prisons to facilities with easy access for their family members.

The letter's publication is significant because the tightly controlled newspapers closely reflect government positions. In October, the government announced an amnesty of 6,359 prisoners on the same day a similar appeal was carried in state-run newspapers.

A prisoner release in the next few days is also anticipated because it would take place just before a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, begins Thursday in Bali, Indonesia. Myanmar is seeking to chair ASEAN in 2014, and the release of political prisoners would be seen as a positive development favoring its bid, which is likely to be decided at this week's summit.

Myanmar's nominally civilian government, which took power in March, has declared its intention to liberalize the hard-line polices of the junta that preceded it.

"It appears there are real changes taking place on the ground, and we support these early efforts at reform," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Friday on the sidelines of an annual Pacific Rim summit. "We want to see the people of Burma able to participate fully in the political life of their own country." The military changed Burma's name to Myanmar in 1989, but Washington and other backers of the country's pro-democracy movement prefer to use the old name.

In his open letter, Win Mra requested that the president grant amnesty "to those prisoners convicted for breach of existing laws, who do not pose a threat to the stability of the state and public tranquility."

The appeal clearly referred to political prisoners, although the term was not used. The government asserts that it holds no political prisoners, only people convicted under criminal law.

"If for reasons of maintaining peace and stability, certain prisoners cannot as yet be included in the amnesty, the commission would like to respectfully submit that consideration be made for transferring them to prisons with easy access for their family members," the letter said.

In recent years, political detainees who in the past would have been held at Insein Prison in the main city of Yangon have instead been sent to jails in remote parts of the country in an apparent effort to make it difficult for them to communicate with the outside.